Trinamool Congress workers went on rampage attacking CPI(M) party offices in several districts on Tuesday evening soon after Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra was assaulted by SFI activists in front of the Planning Commission (PC) office in New Delhi.

CPI(M) leaders claimed
Trinamool Congress men attacked and ransacked their party offices at Taldangra in Bankura; Suri in Birbhum; Ghatal, Keshpur and Dantan in West Midnapore; Durgapur in Burdwan; Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas and Purshura and Chinsurah in Hooghly.

As the evening wore on, reports of CPI(M) offices getting attacked began pouring in from different districts.

Trinamool Congress men did not spare CPI(M) leaders like former higher education minister Sudarshan Ray Chowdhury and former land and land reform minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah. They allegedly damaged cars of the two leaders and hurled bombs on the car of Mollah.

A group of Trinamool men attacked six local offices of CPI(M) in Barrackpore area. They also damaged the dais set for a condolence meeting for the departed SFI leader Sudipto Gupta at Barrackpore Station.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya told HT, Trinamool acivists also detained Congress MP Deepa Dasmunshi’s car while she was traveling to Kolkata from Namkhana in South 24 Parganas.

The 'counter-attacks' on CPI(M) offices came even as senior CPI(M) leaders such as former state chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose and the leader of opposition in West Bengal Assembly Suryakanta Mishra issued unequivocal condemnation of the heckling of Mitra in the capital.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee lost her cool in anger in front of the PC deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia while condemning the SFI attack. “We will get even tomorrow. We can arrange an assembly of 10 lakh people in New Delhi,” Mamata snapped while reacting to the ‘SFI-sponsored hooliganism’ in front of the Yojana Bhavan.

Trinamool Congress general secretary Mukul Roy denounced the SFI attack on his party leaders. “They have assaulted Mamata Banerjee, Amit Mitra and Subrato Mukherjee. We strongly condemn this and will organise a state-wide peaceful movement in protest against the incident across Bengal on Wednesday,” Roy said to mediamen in New Delhi.

However back in Bengal, Trinamool men did not resort to peaceful means. Incidents of attacks on the party offices of the CPI(M) by Trinamool Congress men were reported from different districts since Tuesday afternoon at a time when Mishra appealed Mamata Banerjee’s administration to maintain law and order situation peaceful in the state.

“We condemn the New Delhi incident unequivocally. We request the people of the state to maintain peace. At some places in the districts of the state our offices have already been damaged and our members beaten up," said Mishra.

Issuing a statement, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said that the Delhi incident was unwarranted and no one supports such politics. Condemning the event, Bose said that necessary action would be taken after consulting the party leaders in New Delhi, immediately after which he called upon the party general secretary, Prakash Karat and discussed the matter.

"It is true that our agitation programmes against the chief minister stand diluted to a great extent," Mishra admitted.

In Suri Trinamool men damaged second storied zonal committee office of CPI(M) on Tuesday evening.

Incidents of attacks on CPI(M) party offices allegedly by the ruling party men were also reported in several parts like Patuli and Ganguly Bagan area in south Kolkata on Tuesday night.